A Week Already?

I must be getting real old because I can't believe that it's been a week since I last posted.

I received a pic from Chris last night, I guess they needed some ballast for a helo flight down to Kunsan AB. He got his first ride in a Chinook.



Those are his feet hanging off the back ramp on the way home. Lucky kid!

16 Year Old Mexican Indian Virgin Girls

HA!!! Caught you again!

This is an internet ritual for me that goes back two years.

It started with this: 14 year old Mexican indian virgin girls

Continued to this: 15 Year Old Mexican Indian Virgins

I'll tell you, they are still the largest entry page. At least 5 to 1.

For your patience, I'll give you some music.

Videos are non-existent for these two movies that were complete surprises when I first saw them.

"Phantom of the Paradise" was an extra, we went to see something else, but they stuck this movie in first. It was a combination of Faust and Phantom of the Opera with a rock sound track.

This is Jessica Harper doing two raw takes of "Special To Me".

Great voice!

You'll have to go to the link because there is no embed and seeing her sing is way better that looking at an album cover.

Phantom of the Paradise - Special To Me - Jessica Harper

This one is not really a video, just the album cover, but I love this song (and the movie), I was on the slow side of learning about this movie, but as much as I got sucked into this movie (I probably went 20-25 times), I never dressed up or went up on stage.

Something Just Doesn't Seem Right Here!

This is the 800m Womens Final at the World Champiionships in Berlin.

SAfrican in gender flap gets gold for 800 win

(You really only have to watch the first 4+ minutes)



Build, musculature, stride...It just doesn't seem to add up.

You guess. It'll take three weeks to get the results back.

Everything the Government Runs is Bankrupt!

(I tried to post this yesterday, but FoxNews can't get their embeds or links written correctly and it wasn't up on YouTube yet.)

Judge Napolitano explaining why government cannot be allowed to take over health care.

When government wants to save money, it shut down like Chicago's City Hall did yesterday.

When private enterprise wants to make more money, it works overtime.

That is going to be posted on the wall above my desk along with:

I have never been given a job by a poor person

Need a good sign for a rally you're going to try this one.

I've Got A Question

I know the owner of my company is going to cancel our insurance if ObamaCare goes through, that 8% penalty for not providing health insurance will cost him less.

What I would like to know is what happen to my dental and vision plan when the medical part is dropped? The reason we get dental and vision is it doesn't cost much to just add those onto the package, but as stand alone plans, I bet they get pricey, and would there be an insurance company left that would just be writing just these policies?

The F-22 Program Needs To Go Forward

Ran across this last night by Gen. McPeak (ret.), Air Force chief of staff from 1990 to 1994, was a national co-chair of Obama for President.

Notice the bolding there at the end of his credentials.

Why We Need the F-22

It’s been more than half a century since American soldiers were killed by hostile aircraft. Let's keep it that way.

That is a sentiment I can get behind.

The United States relies on the Air Force, and the Air Force has never been the decisive factor in the history of war.

—Saddam Hussein,
before Desert Storm

High-end conventional war is characterized by the clash of industrial forces. It’s armored, mechanized and increasingly air-power centric. Few are equipped by training or temperament to understand the phenomenon, especially as it concerns air warfare, a relatively recent aspect of the human experience. (In this regard, Saddam Hussein had plenty of company.) But the bottom line is that in high-end conventional war, neither our Army nor Navy can be defeated unless someone first defeats our Air Force.

For high-end conventional war we’ve built an Air Force that, for now, is virtually unbeatable. Anyone looking at our air-power capabilities knows there is little hope they can concentrate conventional forces for decisive engagement of our Army or Navy. We will track them and pick them to pieces. When Saddam Hussein tried us on for size in the early-1990s, the ground war was a four-day walkover that followed the initial 39 days of aerial combat.

Any conflict comes down to "boots on the ground", but to protect those "boots", the job is a hell of a lot easier when they aren't having to keep looking up to see if something is falling from the sky on them.

I pointed out earlier that we have Air Superiority right now, but those days may be getting short.

We have forced anyone with a bone to pick with us to find an alternative to high-end, conventional war. We’ve had to invent a vocabulary for this low end: “asymmetrical” conflict, it being another poorly understood activity. But it seems clear that in this sort of war our existence is not threatened, that we can regulate the resource input. It can be expensive in men and material, but we cannot be defeated militarily.

When the enemy succeeds, it is because we do not defeat him and then weary of the fight. This is not a good outcome, but it is better—and much cheaper for us in lives and treasure—than losing a high-end, conventional conflict.

I make no excuses that we don't want a "fair" fight. I want our military to go in, kick ass, take control and then we can consider being magnanimous after our victory.

I have a stake in this and so do a lot of the people I know. Sons, daughters...if not themselves that are on the front lines around the globe, that we would like to come home safely.

You got a Su-27, well we can see you, but you can't see us...but that's not going to last very long.

The future air combat capabilities we should build are based on the F-22, a stealthy, fast, maneuverable fighter that is unmatched by any known or projected combat aircraft. But the F-22’s production run may soon come to an end at just 187 planes, well short of establishing the fleet size we need. After all, it’s expensive, and getting more so as the number contemplated has been repeatedly reduced. In an argument they seem to think makes sense, critics say the aircraft has no worthy opponent—as if we want to create forces that do have peer competitors.

Get that? The fewer we produce, the more expensive each plane is, the more we produce, the less cost per unit. Yeah they still cost a butt-load of money, but when the Russian counterpart gets out, we'll need more that 187 F-22's spread out or sitting in the wrong place is almost as useless as not having them to begin with.

It’s been more than half a century since any American soldier or Marine has been killed, or even wounded, by hostile aircraft, a period roughly coincident with the existence of the Air Force as a separate service. Even during the Korean War—the Air Force’s first engagement wearing new, blue uniforms—enemy air attack was primitive and rare. The main air battle was fought along the Yalu River, just as in Vietnam it was fought over Hanoi, and in Desert Storm, over Baghdad. Our guys on the ground had hard work to do, but when they looked up, they saw only friendly skies.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why we should wish to change this.

We've lost a lot of pilots in those fifty years, but it was always our fighters ruling the sky. Our troops on the ground were left to deal only with their troops on the ground. I'd like to keep it that way.

Bonus Stuff:

I needed another F-22 video to close this off and I found a cool one:



Also, if you are close to L.A. and you've never been to an Air Show I would recommend the Edwards Show Oct. 17 and 18. They WILL have a F-15 and F-22 there so you can marvel both their capabilities and compare something that first flew when I was graduating High School (1972) and what they can do now 36 years on.

I'll be at the Air Show on Saturday, the 17th and I'll wear my Rottie T-shirt. If you see me say hi!

News From the South (of Korea)

After a week of Chris and I just missing each other on AIM, I finally bumped into him last night.

He finally got to go the range and he qualified as "Sharpshooter".



Not Expert, but maybe next time.

An amusing thing. The Camp is shuffling the MP's to a new building, so all the MP's are getting the new place set up, but the Weapons locker is still in the old building with no one to watch it, so Chris has been assigned to the detail to baby sit the weapons.

That involves sitting outside a locked room for 3 hours.

I asked if he was armed, and he said they were going to be (and should be)...but being most of them just got out of AIT, it might be too much responsibility. Unbelievable!!! These are Army guys and gals, they have ongoing weapon training (see above), and if they were in the ME there wouldn't even be a question about it. I guess if someone starts to break into the locker, he has to call the MP's and wait 15 to 20 minutes for them to show up to draw the chalk line around his body.

Good practice for when they go into the civilian police force.

He finally tried to extend his tour, but typically when he went to do it, the computer was down. Another paycheck without the bonus.

Overall he seems to be in good spirits, but is out of touch with what's happening here at home regarding the Townhalls and the anger of the people.

A Gift

It's not often I am given a gift a good as this!

Two days ago, I wrote a piece called "Going Postal". I had been at work all night and had the news running and reading some articles on the web. Of course 90% of the news was on the Townhalls and ObamaCare, then I ran across a story on the Post Office having a huge debt this year and a projected huge debt next year.

Everyone seemed to like to compare government run Health Care with the DMV, but I never liked that. DMV is state run and I never go there. I've got AAA and they can handle just about anything I need and being I haven't had a ticket in over 25 years, I just get renewals on my license.

Using the USPS as the benchmark of governmental inefficiency just seemed to fit so much better. Hell they just raised the price of postage and they are still in the hole.

Then, yesterday, Obambi went out to do some heavy campaigning for his program and I swear he picked up Joe Biden's notes by mistake.



Bwwahahaha!!!

They let him talk without his teleprompter again.

I've got to go turn on the news now to see Gibbs "uh" his way through the backtracking on this gaffe.

The Crap Just Keep Piling Up

The congresscritters from both sides of the aisle are running scared. Their August break is a time when they are able to drop by home for a couple days and tell the great unwashed what a wonderful job they are doing for us before flying off to the Bahamas to see if "Climate Change" has made it warmer down there this year.

They are going to need that junket when they hie their butts outta town. They have found themselves caught in a maelstrom of really pissed off constituents from all over the political spectrum.

Trying to explain how a bill that hasn't been written is going to save us all just ain't flying. Like every bill this Administration has come out with, there is a basic form, but no details, and after it passes, when they fill in the details, it doesn't do anything that they told us it was going to do.

The proles are starting to wake up and demand specifics BEFORE the ObamaCare bill gets through.

It has forced the Dimi's to dig deep into "Rahm's magic bag of Chicago political tricks ™" being they've thrown out the "RACIST" card too many times and everyone is just ignoring it.

Here's a cute one that they tried to pull, but it worked too well and they got caught with their pants down:

Democrats Send Out Phony Tearjerker Letters

An Oakland County [Michigan] Democratic Party official used interns to send falsified letters to Republican county commissioners in order to persuade them to vote for a health care resolution, according to a commissioner who received one of the letters.

Shelley Taub, R-Bloomfield Township, said she received a letter on July 9 from an unidentified woman from West Bloomfield Township who said she felt that she failed as a mother because she couldn't afford health care for her ill son.

"I got this letter and it tore my heart apart," Taub said. "When I read that this woman thought she was a failure as a mother because she couldn't provide health care, I thought, 'My God, I can do that. I know so many people (in health care). I'll get this kid help.' "

Taub and her husband searched for information about the woman, found out that she actually lived in Fraser, so Taub called the home phone number and left a message.

Taub said she received a phone call that night from the mother of the woman who sent the letter who informed Taub that her daughter was not married and is a student at the University of Michigan.

The woman who sent the letter explained to Taub that she had recently finished an internship with the Oakland County Democratic Party in Bingham Farms, Taub said. The woman said she and two other interns were given sample letters and told to modify them, change the return address and send them out, Taub said.

You think that with all the people they keep telling us that are desperate for Health insurance, they could come up with a couple of real people and give them a few bucks to write their story. I guess it's one of those "Jayson Blair" moments...we know the someone is out there with close to this type of story, but dang it, it's so much bother to go out and actually find one.

Pelousi and her gang have tried to say that we're "un-American" if we don't just shut up, sit down and inhale (deeply and hold it in) their talking point platitudes.

Of course if you don't heed their warnings about rocking the boat, well they have ways to correct that behavior too:



It's a poorly lit video, but they only come out at night...at least so far.

(Can't wait for "Card Check" to start!)

As an addendum to my post below I want to put this in:

Government Medicine Should Horrify Americans
By Deroy Murdock

Imagine that your two best friends are British and Canadian tobacco addicts. The Brit battles lung cancer. The Canadian endures emphysema and wheezes as he walks around with clanging oxygen canisters. You probably would not think: "Maybe I should pick up smoking."

The fact that America is even considering government medicine is equally wacky. The state guides health care for our two closest allies: Great Britain and Canada. Like us, these are prosperous, industrial, Anglophone democracies. Nevertheless, compared to America, they suffer higher death rates for diseases, their patients experience severe pain, and they ration medical services.

When Congress reconvenes I pray they start hammering out some detail on this crap sandwich real quick. Telling us to 'trust them", it "has" to be done "NOW" has worn way to thin.

The tar is being heated and the chickens plucked!

Going Postal

So government thinks it can take over Health Care and provide more service and reduce costs.

Lets look at a simple government entity with a simple goal. Taking a product and making it move from point "A" to point "B". The government has been doing this for over 200 years, and they use to do it for free.

In my lifetime the cost of a 1st class stamp has gone up 106% while wages have gone up about 30 some-odd percent, yet they still have an expected shortfall of 7 billion dollars this year.

This is your government at work. They do not worry about overhead or unprofitable details, they know they get bailed out even if they screw it up...year after year, after year....

When e-mail ate into the amount of units they had to handle, did they reduce staff? No, they promote unnecessary people to management because the Union says they can't unload someone just because the position isn't necessary any longer, or hell really wasn't needed to begin with.

Now the government wants to run Health Care?

It always works out so good. People whose income counts on taxing people who really produce something. In other words, they require me to make money so the taxes that I pay can pay their salary.

The two biggest employers in the world are:

1) The Chinese Army @ 2.3 million

2) Indian State Railways @ 1.5 million

Followed by the NHS of Britain @ 1.3 million people

Let me insert one of those obnoxious staticsical thingys in here:
(click to biggify)



Even though;

Cancer survival rates in Britain are among the lowest in Europe, according to the most comprehensive analysis of the issue yet produced

England is on a par with Poland despite the NHS spending three times more on health care.

Of course the fact that the U.S. is sitting there proudly at the top of the lists...there is something wrong with our system and it must be made to fall in line with the countries below us.

It's only fair.

There is no way way you can convince me that the government is here to help me as far as my personal life. It is written into the bill that computer models are going to decided what treatment is "recommended" to be most cost effective.

If this gets through and you want recourse that your provider didn't do the right thing at the proper time.....

SORRY, YOU CAN'T SUE THE GOVERNMENT, THEY MADE THEMSELVES EXEMPT.

Maybe They Should Have a Different Title

Representative just doesn't seem to fit anymore.

Doggett gets chilly reception

Back in Central Texas while Congress is on a month-long recess, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett faced an angry audience at a town hall meeting at an Austin Randalls grocery store Saturday.

Doggett, D-Austin, spoke at the store at Brodie and Slaughter lanes. A video of the event on YouTube shows that many in the crowd had signs denouncing President Barack Obama's proposed health care plan.

Witnesses said that when Doggett was asked whether he would support the plan even if he found that his constituents opposed it, Doggett said he would. People then began chanting "just say no" and overwhelmed the congressman as he moved through the crowd and into the parking lot.

"The folks there thought their voices weren't being heard," said Kathy Acosta, a Bastrop resident who attended the meeting at Randalls and another one later that day in her hometown. "They were angry, but they were respectful. There wasn't any violence."

Calls and e-mails to Doggett's office were not returned Sunday

They don't address the concerns of their constituents, won't answer calls or e-mails and vote the way they want to regardless.

Czar, maybe...no being used, perhaps commissar.

Aahh! We Hurt Their Feelings

And I could give a Sh*t!

It seems someone has been traveling around L.A. and putting up some posters.



I saw one of them on my way into work yesterday glued to a signal box.

I guess Earl Ofari Hutchinson saw one too, because he's disturbed by it.

“Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery,” says Hutchinson, “it is mean-spirited and dangerous.”

Oh really?!



Or this from a year ago;



FETE

Must Be Another Of Those "Rights" Things

JOBLESS GRAD SUES COLLEGE FOR 70G TUITION

She has given new meaning to a class-action lawsuit.

Trina Thompson gave it the old college try, but couldn't find work. Now she thinks her sheepskin wasn't worth her time, and is suing her alma mater for her money back.

The Monroe College grad wants the $70,000 she spent on tuition because she hasn't found gainful employment since earning her bachelor's degree in April, according to a suit filed in Bronx Supreme Court on July 24.

Three whole months!!! I just can't imaging how in this economy that someone who is fresh out of school and no hands on experience in her field couldn't land a job right off.

/sarcasm

The 27-year-old alleges the business-oriented Bronx school hasn't lived up to its end of the bargain, and has not done enough to find her a job.

The information-technology student blames Monroe's Office of Career Advancement for not providing her with the leads and career advice it promised.

"They have not tried hard enough to help me," the frustrated Bronx resident wrote about the school in her lawsuit.

I don't know all the details involved here, but it's my blog and I can opine.

Could be she does a lousy interview. Could show up late, not dress up. Or it could even be that the college didn't prepare her adequately for the job.

I went to a Trade/Tech school "Valley College for Medical and Dental Assistants" and learned Respiratory Therapy. The school had a "Career Service", but you find out quickly that the businesses that contact these schools usually have some minor problem with holding onto employees. They either pay to little or they're just crappy places to work ("We've placed lot of graduates with this company" is a clue) and they need a constant flow of new people to replace the ones that leave after a year.

I got my job by networking on my own. Apply everywhere, use any "in" you can through teachers, family, friends, friends of friends. I had a job 2 weeks after graduation that I held for 3 1/2 years, and only left to go back to school (which is another story "The Wasted Year(s)").

There is no guarantee of employment and sometime finding a job is harder than doing it.

Tea Party Ad

(From the info on You Tube)

This resulted from a Mom in Alabama asking her high school son to help with a commercial for the Tea Party she was involved in organizing. Boy, does it slam the message home. Very impressive.
Here is her note:
"I asked Justin if he could help me make a commercial for my group's Tea Party. He sat down at the laptop for about an hour, and then brought this to me and asked, 'is this okay, Mom?' After I finished watching it, my stomach was in my throat.
Everyone that I have sent it to has really enjoyed it, so I wanted my friends to see it. I am so proud!"
A very powerful video...turn up the sound & sit back...!!!

HT: Nice Deb

Pure Patriotism: A Book Reveiw

Pure Patriotism
by Clayton Thibodeau
98 pgs.

I was contacted by the author about 3 weeks ago and offered a copy of his book "Pure Patriotism" for review. I assured him that I was a fast reader and would enjoy reading it and giving my opinion.

About now I'm sure he's written me off as a flake, but I just finished the book today.

This is not a big book in the number of pages (98), but it is a big book on thoughts and beliefs. If you are like me, you won't want to just sit down and read through this book, you will read a section (or maybe two) and mark your place, set it aside and spend some time thinking through what you've read and how it applies to your life.

The book is not "Conservative" or "Liberal", it is an overview of what patriotism towards the United States entails and he points out the pitfalls of not adhering to the basic principles that were given to us by our founders.

Like me, Clayton's deepest concern is career politicians (royalty) and the lack of interest and action by us, the people of this great country. We were given such an immense gift, but through inattention and laziness are slowly watching our freedoms be stripped slowly away.

A book I will be glad to see on my bookshelf and will pull out just to open to a page and reread and rethink the topics.

Ahhh! Bless The Irish

I'd be betting this little story would shoor to be bringing a tear to your eye.

True Irish welcome for U.S. troops at wedding party
Happy couple invite stranded G.I.'s to join wedding celebrations
By
KELLY FINCHAM
,
IrishCentral.Com Editor

U.S. soldiers were given a true Irish welcome at a wedding in Co Clare this week.

The 300 troops were stranded in Shannon last weekend after their Iraq-bound plane was grounded.

As luck would have it, they were booked into the same hotel as the wedding party for Amelia Walsh and Sean O'Neill.

And so the 300 troops were invited to join the festivities at the Clare Inn in Newmarket-on-Fergus.

The groom's uncle, Joe O'Neill said: "It didn’t take long before the combat fatigues were manoeuvring to the strains of ‘The Walls of Limerick'."

The happy couple posed for pictures with the troops earlier in the day and Eamon Walsh, the father of the bride, said the couple were "proud" to have the soldiers at their function.

Walsh said the couple invited the men in so they could experience an Irish wedding.

"They behaved in an exemplary manner at all times and if our troops behaved in the same way when they are on peacekeeping duties, I would be very proud," he said.

O'Neill, who flew in to the wedding from his home in San Francisco, said: "As the soldiers began to mingle into the private wedding party banquet area they were told by their Commanding Officer that the area was a private party and off limits.

"Common decency, and Irish hospitality however, overruled personal political opinions, and the groom, a fine young man, accepting that I might be a little prejudiced in this respect, informed the Commanding Officer that they were welcome to join the party.

"I believe the groom’s brother summed up the general feeling of wedding guests when he said, “If my own son happened to be in that situation in a foreign country, I would hope that someone would show him a bit of a good time before he had to face what they are going to," he said.

Sean and Amelia, may you have a long and happy marriage.

I Believe

By Nate Beeler
© 2009

Bill Whittle and Sarah Palin

From the first essay that I read from Bill Whittle, an essay called "Honor", many years ago, I've envied this man's ability to put into words what I knew in my heart.

The Sarah Palin "controversy" has been sticking like a trout bone in my throat since she announced that she was stepping down as Governor. I wanted to write about it, but getting all the thoughts into a few hundred words just wouldn't come to me.

Well, Bill got it down. I wish they had an embed, but they don't, so go to PJTV and watch this video:

The Media, The Left and GOP Elitists vs. Sarah Palin: A Lesson on How to Destroy a Leader

It's free, and if you've got a so-so computer like I do, pick the "Basic flash" player on the left sidebar. It's a guy talking to you from his heart, so HD isn't a factor.

While you're there, look around. They have a lot of conservative commentators there that will give you something to ponder over, or give you points the next time you get drawn into explaining your side of the debate.

Also notice that I fully endorse Mr. Whittles book, SILENT AMERICA The Second Edition Bill Whittle over on the right sidebar.

ODDS ''n' Ends

I ran into this over the weekend and I think it explains a lot about my state. These are the politically active people?



Now you know how Pelosi, Boxer and Waxman keep getting elected.

Yeas, she does praise Bush for his stance on small businesses, but if she's a Republican then I'm sure the party left me.
_______________________________

How about some fun news:

Eighty-Six Year Old Texas Grandma Chases Intruder Away with a Can of "Raid" - Video 7/24/09



Go, Granny Go!!1
H/T Freedom's Lighthouse

_________________________________________

Here's a man who doesn't know when to sit down and keep his mouth shut.



Now let's see if there is a mistrial. The hearing was tainted by his outburst and may prejudice the outcome.

__________________________

And just to show there is a state out there trying to give Kalifornia a run for it's money:

Wienermobile in the doghouse with Hawaii's Outdoor Circle

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile's recent O'ahu visit did not cut the mustard with the Outdoor Circle.

The nonprofit Outdoor Circle, best known for helping push Hawai'i's strict billboard ban through the 1927 Territorial Legislature, said the Wienermobile violates a recently enacted state law that bars vehicles used primarily to advertise or promote a service or product.

I swear that people like this are just trying to suck all the fun out of life. I can remember when I was a kid counting the days until the Wienermobile was going to show up at our local supermarket. I got to meet "Lil Oscar" (bet he's gone...it's so non-PC to hire midgets now) and I got a Wienerwhistle.



_______________________________________

For a close out, a just toooo damn cute story:

Blind border collie gets his own guide dog

Black and white hound Clyde is totally blind and relies on his partner and fellow collie Bonnie to guide him everywhere.

She stays inches from Clyde's side while guiding him on walks or to food or water, and lets him rest his head on her haunches whenever he becomes disorientated.

AAaahhh!!! It got dusty in here.

Death of the F-22?

I woke up early this morning (3AM) so I could IM with my son in Korea. He did have two E-mails waiting for me when I got up:

I just read that Gates is canceling the F-22 program. Really??? He said that we are just going to use the F-35 and because the 35 is based a lot off of the 22, we don't need to put that much more into the program. And other countries want to buy the 22 but Congress has put it into law and kept it that we can't sell it to other countries. A lot of other countries want to wait out for the 35 now. If we are going to export that and not the F-22... I just don't get it. But whatever.

How Chris ended up in the Army is beyond me. For as long as I can remember, he was always about aircraft. When the F-22 first came out I hated it...it was going to replace my beloved F-15, Chris just couldn't understand my attachment to "archaic" technology.

I was convinced (grudgingly) he was right when we saw the Raptor fly at Edwards Air Force Base at an Air Show with AFJROTC. In 20 years of Air Shows, I'd never seen a jet that maneuvered like that, and coupled with the stealth technology and the "super cruise", I was sold.



We knew that we had maintained air superiority for the next 20+ years. Of course the gov't doesn't see it that way. His second Email had some conflicting news articles:

Time to Scrap the F-22 Raptor

and

We Cannot Afford to Lose the F-22

To me this is the typical short sightedness the gov't usually displays, just like the kerfuffle over body armor at the start of the Iraqi war. The gov't decides we can cut the military budget by getting rid of something "not needed" right now, then screaming to high heavens that they "Shocked!, Shocked!!! I tell you!!!" that the needed equipment isn't there when required.

The Russians have 2 versions of Next Generation jets in production right now, and the WILL sell versions of it to get cash, not to mention the Chinese getting one and reverse designing it.

In about 10 years, our jets are going to be blown out of the sky, and congress and everyone who is saying we can't afford it now is going to be the first screaming about "How come someone didn't see this coming?" and this won't be just about old body armor or Humvees that aren't upgraded, this will mean major battles lost being the guys we're fighting have better planes than we do.

Air superiority is not something we can just ignore for years and then crank out a bunch of planes when we need them. In 10 years when the should have been there...the company that made them, the people that knew how to put them together, and the pilots that know how to fly them are gone.

The F-35 is a fine plane...for what it was designed to do. Land attack missions. which is fine if you're fighting the Taliban, but when we have to face the new Russian designed planes and their knockoffs, we're going to lose a lot of 35's.

You Have Got To Read This

Got this on American Thinker, and I'm sorry I deleted the Email that sent me ther, but thanks...I needed a good laugh today.

Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin Jealous
By Stuart Schwartz

You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. You don't understand it. Sure, maybe she has accomplished a few things (like the $26 billion dollar natural gas pipeline deal, restructuring Alaskan government, and taking an ice pick to corrupt politicians). But she has no style, no pizzazz -- she just does stuff. But so do you -- and you can't understand why you don't get the same adoration. After all, didn't you go before the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission and not just protest, but elegantly protest -- so said The New York Times -- a 16-story tower a developer wanted to build in your ritzy Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood? Sarah Palin wouldn't have done that; she's not brilliant enough to understand preservation. She probably would have looked at the jobs the construction would create and given it a déclassé "Hell yeah!"

You've got read the whole thing. I had a hell of a time picking a paragraph to quote.

News From The Far East (UPDATED)

I received an Email from Chris a week ago. After all his moaning about being posted to Korea, he's was considering committing himself to staying in Korea for an extra year.

It's not that he's any happier about being there, but if he signs on to stay there he gets a significant pay raise starting the day he signs the contract. He's got things he wants to buy and that cash will come in handy.

He asked me my opinion and I gave him a couple of pluses and minuses that I could see to start with and told him to work it through and figure out if he could be content stuck there...and to keep in mind when it's time to move, they could send him ANYWHERE. Of course being the Army they could send him anywhere at any time anyway.

For me, it would be great! I would love to see part of Asia and another year would help getting some money together to travel there comfortably.

I didn't hear from him for a week.

Last night he called. He still hasn't decided, but is leaning strongly in favor of the extension. His buddy from Ft. Rucker is posted at Camp Humphrey and they are rooming together. Their first order of business, get internet hookup.

After all those weeks of training in AirOps, the job they are looking to slot him into is...Driver for a Staff Sergeant. (G-d I love the military.) I don't know what this duty would entail, but someone has to do it, I guess.

UPDATE:
Please read the first comment. My son informs me of my lack of knowledge of how the military operates. (I wondered why a lowly SSgt. would get a personal driver) I figure I'll grasp all the nomenclature and rules of the Army at about the end of his enlistment.

Where Do I Start

Before I get started some good news. Chris is finally at his base in Korea. He's a little miffed because he's on standby status, which means he isn't doing what he was trained for and he gets to occupy his time mopping a lot of floors. He hated being in Alabama because of the weather, so he goes half way round the planet and it turns out Korea in July is just like Alabama. Temps in the high 80's with 60 to 100% humidity and Thunderstorms every couple of days.

The reason I know this is although he doesn't have a phone he can get on the internet with a Wifi signal so we can IM over AIM. Even though he's 16 hours ahead of me, being I'm up most nights, we can communicate regularly.

I knew you were dying to know what is up with him, so I wanted to get that out of the way. (mheh)

Now, important stuff.

Have you bought any of those florescent light bulbs they are foisting on us? My local DWP sends me one every 6 months to get me going on being green.

I'll admit, they work fine, using less energy and they last longer that incandescent bulbs, we use them at work and even with vibration we've only had one or two out of about 35 go out over the last year and a half. But like all mandated "green" laws there is something they forgot to mention.

The Light Bulb Liars
by Terence P. Jeffrey
07/08/2009

The congressional authors of the law understood they were, in essence, phasing out incandescent bulbs.

They did this, they said, to help save the planet from overheating. But the light-bulb left did not weigh -- or care about -- the unintended consequences of their crusade.

One of these consequences is the potential for an environment disaster in your family room.

You see, fluorescent bulbs contain mercury -- a bad, bad pollutant and health hazard that the Environmental Protection Agency has been sounding alarms about for years.

Well, isn't that special.

The first section is titled: "What Never to Do With a Mercury Spill."

It says: "Never use a vacuum cleaner to clean up mercury (but see the 'What to Do if a Fluorescent Light Bulb Breaks' section below for more specific instructions about vacuuming broken fluorescent light bulbs). The vacuum will put mercury into the air and increase exposure."

To vacuum, or not to vacuum? That is the question.

Go read the rest, it gets better.

On the same note, take a gander at this.

GAO: Electric cars won’t reduce carbon emissions

Idiots! Energy has to be produced somewhere to power the damn things. I guess they just thought that electricity is created at that thingy you put the plug in.

And I can't forget this one.

Meet the retrofit police
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For the last few days I've been listening to this story of some black kids getting kicked out of a swimming pool.



I hope the SOB's running the pool are ashamed, embarrassed and even their dogs won't talk to them. If they want to do right, they should let these kids have their swim day for free for the rest of this summer and offer them a 75% discount to come back next year.

But there are some racist things going on out there that aren't getting any national coverage.

Akron police investigate teen mob attack on family

Akron police say they aren't ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.

But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.

It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend's home in South Akron.

Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.

I don't believe in "Hate Crimes". It a stupid concept. The idea that it can be proven exactly what a persons thoughts were while committing a crime is ludicrous. I've had some things pop out of my mouth that amazed myself when I've been nervous, scared or mad, but if the crime is agaist some minority group, it is always the first thing they say, "We are investigating this as a "hate crime", yet when it's a "minority group" committing the crime and racial things are said...well, "We don't want to jump to conclusions and get anyone upset". Bullshiite!!

They are going to have figure out how to level these laws if they want them to work.
-----------------------------------

Obambi has broken another campaign promise. (Bet you're surprised)

Video: Obama on signing statements, then and now

Hey Barack! Being the guy responsible for running the country's a bitch, ain't it?
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This is the scariest thing I've read in quit a while. The science czar (no oversight) has a slightly interesting history.

The ghoulish spirit of Margaret Sanger lives

Forced abortions. Mass sterilization. A “Planetary Regime” with the power of life and death over American citizens.

The tyrannical fantasies of a madman? Or merely the opinions of the person now in control of science policy in the United States? Or both?

These ideas (among many other equally horrifying recommendations) were put forth by John Holdren, whom Barack Obama has recently appointed Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology — informally known as the United States’ Science Czar. In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the man now firmly in control of science policy in this country wrote that:

• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;

• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;

• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;

• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.

• A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.

Impossible, you say? That must be an exaggeration or a hoax. No one in their right mind would say such things.

Well, I hate to break the news to you, but it is no hoax, no exaggeration. John Holdren really did say those things, and this report contains the proof. Below you will find photographs, scans, and transcriptions of pages in the book Ecoscience, co-authored in 1977 by John Holdren and his close colleagues Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich. The scans and photos are provided to supply conclusive evidence that the words attributed to Holdren are unaltered and accurately transcribed.

Here's the link mentioned above:

John Holdren, Obama's Science Czar, says: Forced abortions and mass sterilization needed to save the planet

Read it!!!

This man is adviser to the pResident on health and science? Things like the "The development of a long-term sterilizing capsule that could be implanted under the skin and removed when pregnancy is desired opens additional possibilities for coercive fertility control. The capsule could be implanted at puberty and might be removable, with official permission, for a limited number of births" was just a fantasy back when he wrote this, now the product exists. Good thing huh girls, otherwise you'd have to report to a gov't sanctioned station and take your pill under supervision every 24 hours.
------------------------------------

Now that I'm in a bad mood, and I hope these thing worried you too, I'll put something that while it's another little degradation that we are forced to deal with, but this guy got his revenge.



Good PR United!!! A few hundred to fix or replace the guitar or 2 million people laughing at you and booking on Delta or American, because you admit you don't care whether possessions entrusted to you get there in one piece or not...if they get there at all.

I think I covered it all.

Trailer Trash Royalty

Here's the "Man Of The People", and his family.

They've got that fancy plane to jet around in and if they ain't traveling to far they got that whirlybird to like jump them up to New Yawk for a night out. And hell, it's free!

The fashion mags were telling us for the longest time about how stylish Michelle dressed "on a budget" using common designers like J.Crew and The Gap, but now that they're in, they've started to give up the pretense of being just like us.

White House denies manufacturer's boast that First Lady carried their $5,950 bag

Earlier this week (while strolling the wooded landscape outside of Moscow), she carried a sexy black clutch, which Italian luxury house VBH boasts is their shiny black alligator manila bag – with a retail sticker price of $5,950.

$6000 for clutch!!! First, it's a clutch, not even a real purse. This is something that can hold a few non-bulky items (like Michelle needs to have a few bucks on hand to tip the doorman or something). You could survive a nuclear strike with the crap my wife could cram into a normal medium sized purse. I'd be willing to bet there isn't even anything in it. Second, what the hell does she need it for? She doesn't have a personal Aide or two that could carry what she requires?

Of course, the explanation given by the White House makes it all better.

The White House says she was carrying the $875 VBH patent leather clutch.

Oh, O.K.! She only spent $900 on something she doesn't really need outside of an accessory.

Back in April she wore a pair of $540 Lanvin sneakers at a Washington food bank.

What is it that someone can design into a pair of sneakers that makes them worth $100, let alone $550? I bet that these "Lanvin" sneakers were made by workers that got a major share of the profit assembling them.

Now that it's long after the election and Obama has won, it's cool for Michelle to spend $5000 for a clutch handbag and $550 on a pair of sneakers...She's the height of fashion!

Unemployment is at 9.5% and expected to climb, taxes are going up on everything, States are bankrupt or right on the edge, but hey, the Obama's care about the people.

Let's not forget how the left treats what they consider unwarranted expenditures on clothing.

Republicans spent $150,000 on Sarah Palin's clothes

I wanna puke.

News Coma

In case you haven't heard, Michael Jackson died two weeks days ago.

I was never a hard core MJ fan (I think I have one of his albums, inherited from a friend who died) but I enjoyed his music with the Jackson 5 and in the 80's.

For about two days I put up with the 24 hour coverage of his death. I'll admit I was curious about the cause and what would happen to his children, but once it devolved into just opinions then the opinions of the opinions, I got disgusted with the coverage. If I flipped by a news channel and anything about MJ came on, I moved on immediately.

Hence, I haven't seen much news for the last week and a half. With all the important things going on in the world, that the MSM would drop everything just because some has been celeb of dubious character OD's makes me furious.



By Cam Cardow
© 2009

G-d Bless This Country, The Greatest, Freest Place On This Planet

Happy Independence Day!!!

233 years and counting.

It seems like the Centennial was just yesterday. We are going through really tough times today, economically and politically, but I can't beleive that the people of this country will let the sacrifices of all those who fought to get us here will allow us to throw away all the rights handed to us, nor the benefits of those rights.

I speak as someone who didn't enlist because of political reasons, I've covered this before, but now has a son sitting in Korea as a trip wire against the oppression of even the most basic dignities of life.

May your steaks come out grilled to perfection and your beer be cold.

Set your beer down before clicking this link. It starts with the "Star Spangled Banner" so I don't want you spilling anything when you stand proud for the anthem of this country that has given us so much.

Happy Independence Day from GoDaddy.com!

Make sure you are displaying the flag today, just make sure it's far enough away when you light the BBQ (don't want to get people confused about your patriotism or that those last 3 beers you had).

I'm going to spend the 4th watching the aerial display of the fireworks show at the the High School just up the street in a lawn chair in my front yard and thinking about my boy and all the other soldiers away from home this day protecting us so that we can sit in our lawn chairs and truly appreciate what this date signifies.

Whoa...What The Hell???

I wasn't going to post this morning...not enough sleep yesterday and a long boring night at work, but I found this over at Hot Air. It appears to be some unknown life form found in a North Carolina sewer.



I can't say I'm surprised. With the interesting cocktail of drugs and ...the normal stuff that pass through a sewer, it only seems natural that some of these things would get together and find a nice moist temperature consistent crevice to hang out in.

How Much More Are We Going To Take?

This is just the stuff going on right now.

John Boenher Exposes Some of the Trash Crammed into Waxman-Markey Cap & Trade Climate Bill HR2454



So much (again) for the transparency of having a bill posted for at least a week before it gets voted on. This crap sandwich was released at 3 AM on the day it was to be voted on...not only that...there was 300 pages of additional junk crammed in at the last second...and...some of the pages are blank pieces of paper, to be filled in later, AFTER the bill is passed.

Think your house is yours to sell when you want? You can put it on the market and negotiate a price with a buyer as to the fair price? Nope. You will have to have the gov't's permission to sell it.

You are going to have to pay for a inspection of your property to make see if your house is "Green" enough for their standards, and if it isn't, you have to make the improvements before they will let you sell it. No negotiating with the buyer to reduce your price to offset the "lack of greenness", you pay it out first. If someone has to lay out 10 or 15 thou on upgrading windows, electrical hookups for cars,or re-insulating the place up to their standards, the price of the house has just gone up 15 to 25 thou to get your investment back.

That's going to open up the market to first time buyers and the poor.

Politicians are just that...Politicians. They've never held a job in the real world and if they did at one time, they are so insulated from it now that they don't know what it's like to live on a budget.

"Hell! If taxes eat into my lifestyle, I know I'll get a raise next year!!! I'm going to vote myself one!"

Listen to this asshat from my late great state of California:



She is correct in saying that "Living within our means" means nothing...TO HER!

She lays it out during her speech. When gov't has money during good times, they borrow even more, then when times cycle to bad...they still spend more than they have. You little guys are just going to have to suck it up and pay more so we can continue to spend more, and she'll need that raise next year so it doesn't hurt her lifestyle.

The consolidation of gov't over the last few months has scared the hell out of me. I listen to Obama and the Dimicrats tell me that this the the road our forefathers would have wanted us to take to ensure that everyone gets the benifit of living in this wonderful country, but they haven't read history.

[exerts from: Would the Founders Remake America?
by Brion McClanahan

Obama sez:

“At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents….Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

For his being a "Constitutional Scholar", methinks he slept through the classes.

William Davie of North Carolina, a Revolutionary War hero, member of the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and proponent of the Constitution

“If there were any seeds in this Constitution which might, one day, produce a consolidation, it would, sir, with me, be an insuperable objection, I am so perfectly convinced that so extensive a country as this can never be managed by one consolidated government.”

Connecticut native and patriot Oliver Wolcott:

“Mankind may become corrupt, and give up the cause of freedom; but I believe that love of liberty which prevails among the people of this country will prevent such a direful calamity.”

Alexander Hamilton:

“Sir, can it be supposed that the state will become the oppressors of the people? Will they combine to destroy the liberties and happiness of their fellow citizens, for the sole purpose of involving themselves in ruin? God forbid! The idea, sir, is shocking. It outrages every feeling of humanity, and every dictate of common sense.”

Patrick Henry:

“Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!”

That we are so rapidly giving up our individual rights and allowing the nanny state to dictate what is ours and what is the states has made me fear that my son may only be able to tell his children what America once was and stood for.

Odds 'N' Ends

Chris is in Korea. He landed just after midnight my time (4:00 pm there).

The kid has spent 36+ hours in airports or on a plane. He had to fly all the way back to Dothan, Al. to meet up with the Army and he figured that he'd just sleep at the terminal, no such luck. They turn out the lights and lock the doors there, so he had to get a cab and rent a motel room to get about 4 hours of sleep.

The good thing about the trip back to Alabama was when the ticket agent at Bob Hope Airport found out he was military, he made sure Chris got the Emergency Exit seat on all three legs of the flight which gave him that little extra room for his 6'3" length.

I've got to go to the post office now and buy combination's of stamps that add up to $0.95, the cost of 1st class mail to S. Korea.

---------------------------

I've added a widget to the sidebar to help me with the time difference to Korea.

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Did you notice that Micheal Jackson was on the cover of both Newsweek and Time this week? How am I suppose to know who my President is?

Andy Levy (Redeye)

---------------------

Top 10 Best States for Personal Freedom
by Human Events

Compiled by the Mercatus Center, a nonprofit public policy research center affiliated with George Mason University, using a wide swath of comparative data to determine personal freedoms, including alcohol and drug laws, asset-forfeiture rules, and education regulations.

1. Alaska

2. Maine

3. New Mexico

4. Arkansas

5. Texas [c'mon Texas whatcha doing down at #5?]

6. Missouri

7. Oregon [Now this one surprises me, must be weighted by the drug laws.]

8. Idaho

9. Virginia

10. Wyoming

Comments are mine.

He's Gone

I dropped the boy off at Bob Hope Airport (Burbank) at 0500 this morning. He's off to Dothan Al (via Salt Lake City and Atlanta) to report back in. He'll get to sleep in the terminal all night before heading to Korea.

I won't be seeing him until May, and even then I doubt I'll see him much as he's coming home for his best friends wedding on a fly in, fly out schedule.

Being he crosses the Date line, it takes three days to get home and back.

I can't explain how good it was to have him home. I'd been here on my own for 6 months and having someone come in and move things was odd. Mainly because we were on opposite schedules.

We did get in a baseball game last week and I took him to his favorite Steak House (Damon's) Friday night, along with a couple of hours of sitting around and just talking. He won't have a phone in Korea, so I'm going to have to crank up the word possessor again and start writing until he gets a computer and internet hookup.

Chris told me the other day that the U.S. is moving their forward bases farther south. I'm not sure what to think about that. My interpretation is that they want a longer time to react to an incursion, and that doesn't make me happy.

Dumbass With A Gun

How many things are wrong with this picture?
(borrowed from the Rott)



The right to keep and bear arms may be in the Constitution, but good G-d Almighty!

I can only assume that when his partner fired it didn't startle him and he pulled his fucking trigger.

* He's wearing an ATF hat (I hope he got it on Ebay)

* He's, like, pointing a gun to his head.

* Finger inside trigger guard...You never, never put your finger inside that space unless your 99% sure you are going to fire the gun.

And just to prove that there are Dumbass guys that even if you take guns away from them will still try to find a way to keep themselves from procreating.

Whoops

Missed one day of blogging because I was just too tired after work.

Missed the next day because I screwed up on paying the damn cable bill, they shut down my internet and was too tired to deal with it after work.

Today is a Friday for me, so I figured I'd deal with it. Igot caught up on the bill and while getting my internet connection back running, I got to talk to a very nice tech guy. My computer is over 7 years old and showing it's age...it's slooowwww. While waiting for my computer to reboot and get the browser going we had a lot of time to chat. Being he had asked me what state I was from at the beginning of our conversation, I asked where he was. He was in Panama.

He was pleasant, polite, knowledgeable, very patient and spoke English with only a hint of accent. I had to go though this same scenario about a year ago and it was not a pleasant experience. That tech was nice enough, but couldn't speak English worth a damn. On top of going through internet withdrawal syndrome and being PO'd at myself for missing the damn bill, I was dealing with a guy that couldn't explain how to correct the problem.

Either Charter is hiring better people, or I just had the luck of a bad draw last time. I just can't trust cable companies since my experience back in '85 when
Sammons Cable insisted I owed them $300 and I showed them all the bills that said that actually they owed me $75 credit. They threatened to sue me, ...then went out of business...I still have their converter box that they insisted I bring into their office sitting in my garage.

Senator....Maam...Bitch

SENATOR Boxer, because she's worked so hard driving California into bankruptcy...Actually she hasn't done a damn thing to drive us into bankruptcy escept vote for her compatriots bills. All her bills have to do with "honoring" some stupid group or event that happened long ago. The "lady" is a cipher.

But she's worked so hard to earn the title of SENATOR and those beneath her don't recognize what a Grand Dame she is.

She's been "employed" by the people of California for 16 years, but has no idea of protocol, most likely because it didn't involve her...or she's just one of those feminazi bitches that will find fault with anything that you say because you have the ulterior motive of dissing her.



This is highlighted by the end of the segment where "Liz" is sooooo upset that someone dared to use a friendly address and she has to take 19 Emails to push her point that she would preferred to be addressed as "Elizabeth".

Hell, I hate to be called "Scottie", but it doesn't grind my gears, and by pointing it out that it annoys me, it just give someone a button to push when they get desperate. (I only admit this because I'm way beyond that, so you can try....then I'll walk away and have another beer and know you were desperate for a rebuttal...and I won.

Times Change

When I was a lad (8 to 16) my parents would send me "up north" to Aunt Lee and Uncle Curt's place in Bayside, Ca.. Bayside was a little town about half way between Eureka and Arcata. This was rural country. I mean rural. People living on a few acres of land raising vegetables, corn, potatoes and berries. There were barns to play in and a "crick" running through the back yard (if you could brave the stinging nettles to get to it).

There were pumps to bring the water up from the crick and they burned their trash in a 55 gallon drum in the back yard. There were no street lights and nobody wanted them.

You had to cross the neighbors sheep pasture to go hiking in the Redwoods across the street.

Being a "city boy" this was my training ground for doing real chores. I could sleep in as late as I wanted, but I was always given something to do the next day. Mow the back section, weed the corn, paint the fence, roto-till the bean patch. When my project was done, I was free to go off on my own (Just remember, suppers at 4:30 and if your more than 15 minutes late...).

At that time, I thought most of the folk up there were ancient, you know in the 40's to 60's, but I loved talking to these "old farts", they were real people, They had jobs, plus they worked their little bit of land because they liked doing it, or they were retired and loved keeping busy. My Uncle Curt was around 70 when I stared going up there, had gone through 2 heart attacks and was still up at dawn (literally) and doing something around the place until Aunt Lee got breakfast cooked.

The reason I'm telling you about this childhood experience is last night I read an article that made me realize that this bit of heaven probably doesn't exist anymore.

Calif. towns challenge feds on military recruiting

Two towns nestled in the rugged coastline and the liberal politics of Northern California have fought the federal government by banning the U.S. military from recruiting minors within their city limits.

Arcata — a town known for taking a stand against the USA Patriot Act and repeatedly passing symbolic measures to impeach President George W. Bush — approved in November an ordinance that would limit Armed Forces recruiters' ability to contact people under 18. And so did nearby Eureka, the Humboldt County seat.

My G-d, the people I knew living there 40 years ago would die all over again if they knew what that area has become.

"We fully expected a challenge, and we got it," said David Meserve, 60, a builder of environmentally friendly homes and former Arcata City Council member who spearheaded the measure. "But more importantly, people are becoming aware there is a problem — and the problem is the recruiting of minors."

The problem is...they don't recruit minors. They offer them a job opportunity to consider when they become adults.

"You will find that establishing trust and credibility with students, even seventh- and eighth-graders, can positively impact your high school and post-secondary school recruiting effort," reads The Recruiter Handbook, published in 2008 by the United States Army Recruiting Command.

The push to reach the young makes sense. A 2007 Department of Defense study found that at 16 years old, more than 25 percent of students considered joining the Armed Forces. By the time they were 21, only 15 percent considered joining.

Gee, going into the Army when you're 16 and getting to play with guns, tanks and other things that go boom sounds great...but a most get older, they realize there are other opportunities available and maybe they don't want to join the military.

My boy was Army from when he was around 8 or 9. Not through my pushing...and certainly not through his Mother's. He cut his hair short, wore camo and joined AFJROTC all on his own. I expected him to just enlist when he graduated, but he waited until he was 20.

So all those talks with recruiters, his paramilitary classes and his natural inclination to join where weighed out. I didn't know he had enlisted until the deal was done.

Meserve said he took up the fight one morning while sitting in a coffee shop and overhearing a National Guard recruiter giving three high school girls a hard sell. The sharply dressed young man bought them fancy coffee drinks and pitched the career opportunities, the scholarships, the camaraderie, while assuring them there was virtually no chance they would end up in a war zone, Meserve said.

This was in 2005, when members of the National Guard were regularly being sent to Iraq, he said.

"Hard Sell", I would guess that would be talking about all the positive aspects of the job. Like "We'll start you out mopping and cleaning, but soon you'll be on the fryer, then, you'll be running the grill and if you develop people skills working the register it's just a small step to Manager. From there you learn the knowledge to open your own franchise and then...Whoa...the money just rolls in".

The lawyer argues the ordinances prevent abuses without interfering with the federal government's ability to fill the ranks of the military. Anyone, independent of age, can still reach out to the military, he said, and recruiters are free to contact adults.

"If they don't contact minors, they can still meet their goals," Yamauchi said. "We believe there are limits to the federal power to recruit children."

They want to make this ordinance legal? Write it so that NO COMPANY can contact minors for jobs. That means no advertising a position unless specifically stated that those under 18 need their parents written permission to apply for the job.

My son chose to join the Army. He had my full support to do so, when he finished High School, and he had his Mom that was dead set against it. He waited until he was sure that he was doing what he wanted in his own time, in spite of the years of "hard sell" by his recruiters.

I can't say it enough. I'm damn proud of him!

He's going to Korea at the end of the month and it scares the hell out of me. It's a tossup whether Korea or the Middle East is the most dangerous place to be right now, but my son is going to be in Korea, so that makes it the most dangerous to me.

To all those anti-military communist assholes that have taken over a part of the country I use to love, FU!!

LAKERS: Congratulations!!!

The Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th Championship title and being I'm SoCal born and raised, I love my Lakers (and Dodgers, and Kings, and still love the Raiders...sorry Clippers and Rams).

There will be no victory parade:

...such a celebration could cost the city $1 million or more at a time when city leaders, faced with a deep budget deficit, were contemplating worker layoffs and cuts in services.

"We can't afford to cover the costs," City Councilwoman Jan Perry told the Los Angeles Times. "How could we make a decision about people's jobs and then sponsor the parade?"

Barbara Maynard, a spokeswoman for the city's employee unions, agreed, telling the paper: "We do not believe its appropriate in this economic climate for taxpayers to be funding a parade."

Oops...never mind, I just this minute heard the parade is on. Guess the city isn't as broke as they were telling us. Either that or somehow the parade can be added to the next stimulus bill somehow.

Of course living here in Los Angeles, we just can't let a good chance to riot be wasted.

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds celebrated in the streets outside Staples Center after the Los Angeles Lakers' NBA title win Sunday night, with some revelers damaging police cruisers, throwing rocks and bottles at officers and setting bonfires in the street, authorities said.

About 25 people were arrested, most part of a rowdy crowd that split off on to surrounding streets after police declared the gathering an unlawful assembly, officer Karen Rayner said.

I'm sure the owner of this car is really celebrating the Laker win today:



I was at work last night about 1/2 mile from Staples Center when the game finished. I heard LOTS of sirens and horns honking, but the crap was kept in a small area.

When I left for work, my son asked if I was going to take protection? I decided no, the games in Florida, how insane can people get here?

Next L.A. championship...I will reconsider.